The Reverse Masquerade Of Haruhi Suzumiya
by Son Of Dyson Sphere
Summary: How far would you go to invent time traveling? Or evolution for data entities? What about keeping the world from being recreated? It starts with the Tanabata festival three years ago...


_The Reverse Masquerade Of Haruhi Suzumiya_

Disclaimer: I do not own the Haruhi franchise.

The window slid open effortlessly and made no sound to betray the night time escape that was about to be made. The young girl who had opened it hesitated for only a second before reaching as far out of the window as she could. Only when over half her body stretched past the threshold of the window did her hand find purchase on a tall and lively tree that grew beside the house where she lived. With a small bound, she swung haphazardly out of the second story window of her room, and hugged the tree with a death grip upon contact. The height didn't scare her, in fact, few things scared the twelve year old from East Junior High.

Even if this young Haruhi Suzumiya held fear of high places, her excitement of the events that she was quickly about to be a part of would overcome them easily. A short descent later, Haruhi let go and landed on the soft grass several feet below. Brushing any dirt off herself and dealing with several loose strands of her long hair, she afforded a quick glance back at the house, which confirmed that she hadn't made enough noise to disturb either of her parents, before hurrying off to her destination, which happened to be her own middle school. The school wasn't far from her house, but Haruhi lamented how long she had waited to ensure everyone was asleep, and hoped desperately that she wouldn't be late.

After all, it wasn't everyday that one met a time traveler. What's more, if the older woman with red hair was to be believed, this would be Haruhi's second meeting with a time traveler. Practically sprinting the few blocks between her house and East Junior High's front gate, she saw no one else around, just scattered signs of life inside houses that she walked by everyday. The words of the red haired, self-proclaimed time traveler woman were still clear in Haruhi's mind.

"Let no one see you leave your house. When you get to your school, you'll meet a teenage boy." She had said after explaining herself and asking for Haruhi's help. Having always wanted time travelers and other extraordinary things to exist, Haruhi had agreed to help before even considering how strange it might seem or dangerous it was to listen to strangers.

"And he'll be a time traveler like you?" Haruhi had asked, unable to hide her eagerness.

"No, he's someone much more important than that." The mature Asahina that hadn't disclosed her name gauged the young girl's disappointment. "However, the girl that will be with him will be a time traveler. Now, you can't tell them that I talked to you, or that you know who they are. All I want you to do is get him to draw this symbol on the school's field with the chalking machine. Don't worry, all the equipment will be out and ready for you."

Haruhi took the piece of note paper that Asahina held out to her and looked at it. Drawn on it was several strange symbols that squiggled and flowed strangely. Deciding to study it later until she had it memorized, Haruhi pocketed the drawing.

"How will I know who to look for?" She asked, realizing the woman hadn't given her any kind of description.

"Well, he will be wearing a North High uniform, same with the girl with him." The woman had answered.

Haruhi straightened out her thoughts as she arrived at the front gate to her school. For a second she felt slightly betrayed, seeing no one around, but she quickly decided that perhaps the person was already inside the gate. After a quick check that the coast was clear, Haruhi climbed the gate and immediately upon reaching the top, heard someone call out to her from behind. Thinking she had been caught, she looked back only to find a teenage boy, carrying a red haired girl on his back. Haruhi's eyes fell on the embroidered emblem of North High School. With the girl unconscious or sleeping, the boy asked Haruhi what she was doing. Without even attempting to lie, Haruhi answered simply: "Trespassing."

After that was out of the way, Haruhi went about convincing the boy to help her, which she had been told would be easy. Unlatching the gate to let him in while he carried a girl that looked similar in a younger sister kind of way to the woman Haruhi had met, she then proceeded to where the chalk line drawing equipment would be stored away. For the next while, she made him draw the design, giving directions from memory, when they were done, they sat to the side of the field.

The moment of truth had arrived. She slowly remembered the questions she was supposed to ask and when the silence between her and the teenager from North High seemed stretched out enough, she asked them one after another.

"Have you ever seen an Alien?"

Something akin to yes was his answer.

"What about Espers or psychics?"

Again yes, and Haruhi, through this seemingly normal older boy, felt her own belief in such things flourish.

"And time travelers?"

'Who hasn't?' He answered once more.

She asked about Dimensional Sliders, to which he replied he had not met one yet, as if he was expecting to. Finally, by her own vocation, she asked his name.

"John Smith." He replied. An obvious fake and Haruhi felt her conviction in him weaken, perhaps he was just an idiot.

Soon after, she left him and the sleeping girl, who's identity Haruhi had suspicions about.

_______________________

Yuki Nagato, a top-class humanoid interface for the Data Integration Thought Entity, had not been expecting company. It was less than three years prior to when she would be beginning to observe her subject, but nevertheless, she initiated contact through the intercom. The name Haruhi Suzumiya was mentioned, but Nagato paid closer attention to the voice of the person talking and recognized it immediately. She opened the door for them and, requiring clarity of the situation, began running an in-depth synchronization with her future self. Choosing an arbitrary date, December 18th of three years later, the process began. It was lamentable that some of her processing power would be taken up with the task of keeping all the information of the next three and a half years, but it would only be a small portion.

The few years of solitude and hiatus Nagato would spend before beginning school at North High flashed by in the time it took her guests to arrive. Naturally, because of her synchronization, she already knew what they came for and that she would have to freeze their data for three years. In fact, the illusion of free choice was now forfeited for the knowledge she gained. Failing to act strictly in the same manner as the self she had synchronized with would result in a cataclysmic failure of processes too unpleasant for even her, a near-invincible being. Again it was lamentable that she would also be using processing power to keep Kyon and Asahina preserved over the duration of their stay.

But the worst lament was yet to come.

Nagato had expected to be done the job of synchronizing halfway through the conversation with Kyon and Asahina and the time frame of August 17th to August 31st should have been unnoticeable, but both proved untrue. As the two weeks repeated itself over and over again, Nagato could feel her power slip away as her mind desperately tried to compile and sort data that seemed almost identical. It would be possible to believe that almost identical data would be easier to store than data of two entirely different days, but the small differences that would be spotted and recorded by her advanced perceptions over that time bloated the data to frightening levels. In physical discomfort, Nagato removed her glasses and finished up her conversation with Kyon and Asahina that she was only partly paying attention to.

Sealing them in a side room, acting exactly as she had seen, Nagato then went into safe mode, as the last two weeks of August continued to compile on top of each other.

It was two days later when the process finally stopped at it's final destination. By then, Nagato knew exactly how to beat Asakura Ryoko, who would be used as a prop in a ruse that would help regulate the data output of their shared subject. She knew the exact details of everything the yet to be formed SOS Brigade would do all in the name of appeasing a being who held the sole interest of the DITE. She also knew the number of times Kyon would offer to buy her a mask at a number of Obon festivals they would attend over fifteen thousand times during their endless  
August. She tried not to think about that repeating fortnight, but there was other things that would worry her just as much.

Firstly, Nagato, as a Humanoid Interface, had an expected life-span of of a hundred to a hundred and fifty years. The calculated time from her creation to the point she had chosen as her sync point was almost six hundred years, four times greater than projected. Naturally, she would still be alive at the very end, but it was entirely likely that she would be full of errors.

Which led to the other worry that sat paramount to all. A short time leading up to December 18th, she would plan to alter the world on that very day. And not just a small change. She saw herself planning to change things on such a large scale that it would be impossible for the DITE to punish her with anything less than complete deletion.

In all her power, Nagato, an interface that was perhaps the most advanced physical being that the DITE ever created, could do nothing to change any of this, aside from deviate from the absolute data in her mind and suffer the consequences. Instead, she would put her faith in the person she was supposed to observe, who was perhaps the most important person in the universe, as he was the key to the evolution of data beings. She would put her faith in Kyon and play her own part with the script always in the forefront of her mind.

______________________

Mikuru Asahina , the older version, had felt a little remorse for tricking him. Kyon was an important person, but subtlety and discretion were key if history was to play out as it's supposed to. She had done her part by getting her younger self to take Kyon back in time and having a young Haruhi Suzumiya waiting there for them. This was the first event in a long time-line that would inevitably lead to the invention of time traveling and the safety of a consecutive time-line. Mikuru Asahina saved some remorse for Haruhi as well, who would be playing the role of a character for a good portion of her life. However, the young girl seemed entirely satisfied with her first payment, which Mikuru had given to her when the two of them met during Haruhi's walk back home from her late night vandalism.

"There, I did it." Haruhi seemed slightly crestfallen since the two of them had spoken days earlier. "Exactly like you asked me to. Now where's the reward you promised?"

"That's good to hear." Asahina answered, smiling brightly. "I'll give you your reward right after I ask you one thing."

"What's that?" Haruhi's nose scrunched critically.

"What did you think of him?"

A brief silence followed the question.

"I think he's an idiot. He tried to use John Smith as a fake name."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now what's my reward?" Haruhi asked in a tone that suggested she was getting impatient.

"Alright, well you actually get two rewards for your job well done. Firstly, if you're willing, we'd like your help in the future. When I say 'we', I mean some of the other groups besides time travelers that I associate with, mostly with what you might call Aliens and an Organization of Espers." Asahina got her answer from how Haruhi's eyes lit up when she said this. Taking in a deep breathe, she prepared to tell the young girl something very important as her second reward.

Leaning in close, she spoke.

"And while I might not entirely agree with them, people from the Organization believe that 'John Smith' is god."

* * *

Thanks for reading. If you did not catch what I will be trying to portray in this fic, I'll tell you outright. The Reverse Masquerade Of Haruhi Suzumiya will be about different happenings during the series, from the view point of other characters, under the impression that it isn't Haruhi they have to keep from destroying the world, but Kyon, and they do this by convincing him that Haruhi is the one with reality changing power. We'll see how far I can take this, if at all farther, but I'm also working on a different fic that explores a relationship between an older Nagato and Kyon. Wish me luck and reviews!


End file.
